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Game Chronicles
'Empyrean Campaign Overview - Part 1' The Characters meet and get to know one another; the wastes provide challenges and the conflicts and mysteries that drive the world of Rhud come to the fore. (levels 2-5) Session 1 - Eggs Erroneous The players have been summoned and/or found themselves in the overgrown and dysfunctional settlement of Narun, during a festival for a recently deceased person of some age. While exploring town, the Tengu met Obolong, the Tavern keeper, Fiedre the Witch, and made friends with a skinny dog. The Orc found a mysterious message intended for someone else and decided to see what it meant. The human and Half-Elf each recieved a summons from Fiedre to meet her on the first day of celebrations for the deceased. On that day, together, they met with Fiedre, who tasked them with retrieving the eggs of a particular Great Lizard nesting ground. She is dissatisfied with how Hadz is running the city, and is determined to raise some of her own great lizards to help her oppose him. The players set out for the nesting ground, and on the way, saw a man approaching them from a distance. He fled when they visibly noticed him. Upon arriving at the Nesting Ground, and the Tengu attempted to retrieve an egg with his magics. The orc, while attempting to assist him, awoke one of the sleeping Lizards, and the group initally fled. The Tengu was able to summon an apparition to distract the Great Lizard, and the Human and the Orc were able to dispatch one of the beasts without injury, which frightened its partner into retreat. The Orc claimed the Lizard's head as a trophy, and they began the trek back to the settlement, with their friend Hadron accompanying them. They returned to Narun with 7 eggs, much more than was expected, and recieved magical poultices and actual Gold! It is anticipated that Fiedre would have more tasks for them in the future. Session 2 - Hadron Collider The players have been summoned again by Fiedre; it turns out that the Kadrak army has left the peninsula and will be in Narun in one month's time. Fiedre needs to accelerate her plans to establish a new settlement for a small group of survivors (around 40 or so), and asks the players to remove a group of ape-men from a site that has a reliable well. The players are appalled at her willingness to let most of the city's inhabitants die, and go to talk to Hadz to see if he has a plan. They meet Excelsior, Hadz's seneschal, who takes them into the mayor's opulent palace. Inside they find a pool of freestanding water, and then Hadz himself-- it turns out that he is providing the water for the settlement via some magical effect that causes water to pour fom his body, where it catches in a basin. The players are told to speak with the Dwarves and Halflings under the city. The players do so, and discover a massive underground tunnel system, dug by the dwarves, as an escape route. A 200-mile tunnel reaching toward Alban has been dug as an escape route for a little over half of the city's population-- much more than Fiedre would save. The tunnel is still some 30 miles short, however. After speaking with Hadz again, it is decided that the tunnel will be dug upwards to the surface and that the players will clear the tunnel's exit point and the region between that point and the city of Alban. Further, Hadz indicates that he has laid a trap for the Kadrak forces, and implies that he is willing to let a large number of Narunese citizens die of plague as part of population control. While Hadz may have a plan that helps many more than Fiedre, his hands are not clean. The players travel overland in the waste for several days, and in that time they were attacked by giant winged lizards, which they easily dispatch. In the second day of their travel, they notice a man following them, miles behind. The party sets up an ambush in some boulders, and waits. Soon, a crow appears and lands nearby. The archer shoots it with an arrow and it flies off; as it does so, the archer manages to feather it with two more arrows and it falls to the ground. The man who had been following them heals the crow and approaches. He refers to himself as 'crow-man', and after a tense interaction, he comes to travel with the party. It becomes quickly apparent that he suffers from short-term memory loss, and was sent by someone called 'Teodora Red-Boots' as an emissary. In a few more days time, the players hear a mysterious and alien musical noise in the distant wastes, and the bird-man and orc go to investigate. They return bloody, with tales of an enormous clockwork monstrosity with powerful claws. The party hurries onward to avoid the beast, and lose it by the next day. Sometime in the following day as they approach the lava channel in which Alban was built, Hadron comes to be with them. Hadron leads them the wrong way into the channel, and there they discover a crystal formation that faintly produces the sound of music and a person speaking. The bird-man and the archer take crystals with them, which allow them to very faintly make out the message even after leaving the formation. The group emerges from the chasm sans Hadron, and the archer is the only one to notice anything amiss abuot the whole episode. The group notices an extra set of tracks, and follows them to Alban, where they meet a similarly confused guard, who takes them to speak with the Albanan leadership. Session 3 - Flashbang Garret, Leland, Okren, and Baz-Baz found themselves dealing with a very chatty guard as they worked their way into the city of Alban. They were led to the council chambers, where a sleepy mayor met with them briefly, and seemed suprised by their news of a half-remembered interloper and a set of extra footprints that led into the city. The Mayor was also alarmed at the news fo the Narunan exodus, and was very worried aobut the addition of 4000 hungry, diseased mouths filling his city. The heroes were sent to quarters and told to speak with Corol, the wizard of Alban-- however, Corol worked on his own schedule, and the heroes had to wait. The next day, the heroes encountered Teodora Red-Boots in the marketplace, and after a tense standoff in which Teodora asked them to give up Leland for a reward, they agreed to a temporary alliance predicated around the clearing of the albanan redoubt, which had for many years been overrun by dark monsters from deep within the earth. The heroes then met with Corol, who seemed to be a bit of a charlatan; he was familiar with Teodora, and he gave them some advice about their journey and offered a reward for the calliope crab that the heroes encountered some days before. Corol showed the heroes (via magic) the early arrival of the Kadrak forces in a seeing-pool, indicating that the timeline had been moved up considerably. The heroes thus set out for the Albanan redoubt, and upon entering they fought vicious creatures swaddled in black rags, some of which emitted blinding light when they died, others that exploded. The game ended with them deep within the dungeon. Session 4 - Lucidity in the Mountain with Gems The heroes emerged from the dungeon into an ancient abandoned city, the redoubt of Alban. Waiting for them was a formidable force of creatures from the deep delvings. As they entered combat with the creatures, a mist condensed into a horrific creature of bone, with a jewel in its forehead. The creature made a proclamation of doom, and raised its talons to cast eldritch magics-- until he was cut short by a brutal attack by Okren. With their leader hewn in half, the minions bowed to Okren's strength and proclaimed him their new master. The surviving creatures of the dark explained that the skeleton was an avatar of the evil one who had come into possession of the mountain. A rock from high above fell upon the mountain an age past, and ever since, the malignancy and power of it has corrupted those nearby, and ultimately enslaved the beings of the lower mountain in its service. Currently, there are enormous, unintelligible delvings going on under the mountain. The creatures did not know what the purpose of the delvings was, but they indicated that they were extensive and did not seem to follow a logic that they were familiar with. From there, the heroes and Teodora's party set out from the dungeon towards Alban to warn the Albanans and to collect their reward and acquire climbing gear. The dark creatures set out for a nearby settlement of their own kind to acquire help in liberating their own that were trapped as slaves below. While en route to Alban, the heroes got to know Teodora's party. Leaving the dungeon, Garrett noticed a number of terror-birds whirling around the top of the mountain, sith strange mutations; also, rivulets of dark ran out from cracks in the mountain, giving it a sinister cast. While camped at the crystal grove, they were visited by Hadron, who uncharacteristically appeared without any magical augmentation. He was run off as an intruder, and said he'd make his way to Alban. The heroes learned that the jewel in the skeleton's forehead was typical of the type used by the great evil to control its victims or to embody the dead, although these simply acted as a focus for these powers, and weren't a necessity for the evil to work its will. The next day, they arrived in Alban, which was already seeing arrivals from Narun. There, the heroes received their reward and briefed the Albanan Mayor. Teodora parted ways with them at that point, headed to Miz with many other Albanans and a few merchants who had decided the climate was too dangerous. The heroes ferreted out one of the Mayor's underlings, who had a jewel on his forehead. The Axe-Man decided to stay and help the heroes, temporarily decides to go by Teodora's old aphorism 'tick-tock', while he begins thinking of something more suitable. The heroes then visited the wizard, who more fully explained the nature of the great evil and its powers. he provided them with a box that could be used to temporarily disrupt the evil's mind-control powers, and then himself prepared to leave for Miz. The heroes set out across the waste once more for the dungeon and the ancient city and weird delvings beyond. In the night just before dawn, they were visited again by Hadron, this time using his magical ability to appear as a friend. As the sun rose, his ability wore off, and his nature was revealed to the heroes, along with much of their past with him. Rocked by this new knowledge, the heroes also learned that the mountain was a great lode-stone, and that the evil's mining would allow the mountain to detach and float away, which would cause ash and lava to destroy the city of Alban. He said that the guard on the gates and dungeon had been redoubled, and then left, saying he'd clear the entrance in order for the heroes to achieve their goal. Session 5 - In the Hall of the Mountain God The Heroes set out from Alban to climb the Evil-infested mountain; having acquired gear. They encountered two mutated terror-birds in the two-day trek there, and experienced two earthquakes, one of which caused a dislodged boulder to almost crush two members of their party. Arriving at the Entrance to the hidden valley, they found the remains of a battle. Entering the battlements, they found one survivros who had nailed himself to a wall with a note. The note indicated that Hadron had been taken prisoner; it then exploded, killing the messenger and seriously injuring members of the party. The heroes began their ascent during the cover of day (the darklings under the mountain were light-sensitive), and when evening arrived, the darklings began to pursue. After a number of mishaps, the heroes managed to get to a fairly safe level of the mountain for a camp, and spent the night. Below, they could see flashes of birght light as various members of the darklings failed to make the ascent and died tumbling down the rocks. That night, they had a strange dream in which they were young people with special skills that were being loaded onto a transport and being sent away from their family and friends on a long journey. One of those young people was Hadron. Though they'd camouflaged their resting place, they were set upon by a mutated terror-bird tht they handily dispatched. After a night of rest, the rejoined their ascent and after further trvails managed their way to the site of the evil sky-rock god. At the site of the evil god's landing there stood an enormous bronze bull which blocked their progress. Beyond it, in a small crater, stood an egg, eith tendrils extendign down through numerous large holes into the mountain below. The heroes skirted the bull and drew near to the egg. They activated the device given to them by the wizard, which disabled the bull and allowed them to approach the leathery, otherworldly egg. Attacking it with their blades, they drained it of is foul fluids, which rained out into the pits below where there were amassed a thouand fo the evil god's slaves, who spoke with his voice as he addressed the heroes and mocked them. As the egg's contents drained onto the slaves below, they could be heard weeping. Once the egg's leathery shell was completely decimated, a figure crawled out from beneath it. It was Hadron; naked, and speaking with the voice of the evil god that live in his body. He mocked the heroes again, and inky darkness began welling up from the holes to fill the crater. The heroes attacked the evil god in Hadron's body. Mockingly, the God released Hadron so that the heroes would have to kill their friend in order to end the evil. Hadron immediately released a wave of psychic energy, accomplishing two goals: the slaves began toa ttack one another, and there was a blinding flash of light as they killed each other en masse. Hadron also used his unique power to cause the heores to see him as their Most Hated Enemy Hadron. The heroes killed Hadron, and as the evil was dying, it summoned all its strength to cause the mountain to stir and rise into the air. When it died, this control was relinquished, and the mountain slammed back into the Rhudic ground, sending many of the heroes to their knees. Meanwhile, the slaves below began to die en masse, creating a gigantic coruscating wave of flashing lights and fire. Following the battle, the heroes destroyed the tendrils and explored the caves beneath the egg, finding crystals and a control device based on musical notes that ostensibly controlled the mountain if it flew. Above, Hadron's body healed itself; while he initially did not respond, his eyes eventually opened at the encouragement of Baz-Baz, but he did not speak. Session 6 - Sir Not Featured Having defeated the strange creature at the top of the mountain and exploring its lair, the heroes convalesced and assessed the situation. Hadron seemed to be in a pseudo-comatose state, and did not respond when talked to. A survivor of the slaves to the dark god was found, and he spoke in another voice, taunting the heroes and speaking of dark twisted magics. When it was determined that the dark creature's control of the slave was absolute, it was determined to kill the wretched creature. Exploration of the device in the center of the room determined that it was a musically-based control console for the mountain, and that the mountain itself was capable fo flying and scrying on certain locations. Lea triggered the mountain to rise once more when she pressed some keys, and the mountain was turned upside-down, presumably dumping Axe-Man and hadron who were on the surface. The mountain slammed back into Rhud, and began to overheat as it strained itself against the ground. Deadly heat filled the control chamber, until the mountain finally shut down. Emerging from the mountain, the heroes found that they had been transported a great distance away across the desert, surrounded by mountains, open desert, and a horizon to the southeast that had a greenish hue. Deciding to investigate this, they set off. A few days into their journey, they encountered Excelsior, Hadz's majordomo from Narun. In his company was his manservant Pon, and they carried between them a massive amount of gold they'd pilfered from the lost city of Narun. Furthermore, Excelsior wore the earrings that gave hadz the power to generate water, making them a potent artifact. Meanwhile, hadron was speaking incoherently, apparently speaking aloud the thoughts of the people around him, his mental abilities gone wild and uncontrolled. he was still not replying to speech, nor would he speak anything other than the surface thoughts of those around him. Pon and Excelsior joined the party, and they began traveling further towards the green. As they camped, they all shared a dream in which they arrived in a village and were tasked with helping a young girl find her brother (Hadron). They entered a wizard's tower and went through a number of Hadron's early life experiences, eventually encountering a man who appeared Kadraki, who said that he was a "failsafe", and he was there to "start afresh". After fighting giant rats and escaping from a hedge maze, Okrin decided to burn the hedge, at which point, a grown Hadron appeared. The group ran back through the various rooms, stopping briefly in a memory they were familiar with from a few days before (of Hadron and other kids loading into a transport) befor eemerging back into the village, where Hadron's sister awaited them and thanked them for their help. Hadron woke up with a greater control over his abilities and the memory of the past few days only. While confused, he was markedly improved from his former self. As the party continued across the desert, he seemed to improve in spirit as well. Soon, they reached the green, which turned out to be a type of sand; the region was known as "Akrod's Test" (Akrod being the god of survival) and as they went further and further into it, they discovered that it was almost entirely devoid of life. After many days of travel and very vocal complaints (and an escape attempt) from Excelsior, they turned around and journeyed back to the mountain. With a better knowledge of how the mountain worked, Lea was more able to pilot it, and after (less lethal) mishaps, they were able to get the mountain to travel to the fabled city at the edge of Akrod's Test. Session 7 - To be Determined The Heroes debarked from the Mountain and entereed the fabled city of Ixis, nestled in the foothills. They were greeted by a wary guard who asked them if they were sky people; they were taken into the city and met a white-skinned Con-Vipa who told them of the city's plight: their means of producing water was in peril; a creature lurked below and was killing those who worked in the salinization tunnels. Okren forced Excelsior to give over his magical earrings, stolen from Hadz, that produce water when worn. This partially ameliorated the water shortage, but the monster still lurked below. The heroes then attended a feast, whereupon they learned that the various factions of the city were not working together as harmoniously as first imagined, and that their disunity might be a factor in the city's faltering survival. The Heroes agreed to investigate the tunnel disappearances, and equipped themselves to investigate the happenings further. Session 8 - In the Darkness Bind Them The Heroes delved into the tunnels below Ixis, determined to find the cause of the missing people. Okren smelled something strange coming out of one of the many tunnels that branched off of the main cavern, and the group went that way. After travelling down that tunnel for quite some distance, they came upon some mushrooms that had become partially translucent and were producing a sublty strange smell. Exploring further, they found a pit leading into an underground grotto, filled with sightless fish. Okren was lowered down to scout the pool, and Baz Baz lit it with magical lights. Okren was quickly attacked by a giant octopus, which dragged him to the depths; Leia jumped in after him and the trio did battle beneath the water. The octopus was defeated and the watery grotto was discovered to reach off into other chambers via underground tunnels. Okren spotted a humanoid figure swimming past one of these tunnels and went to investigate. He was surprise-attacked upon emerging into the next grotto, and Leia dispatched the attacker. Dragging the attacker's corpse back to town, they realized that the attacker's skin had turned clear, and they took the body with them to show the elder. Emerging from the tunnels, they found that a newcomer had arrived in the town-- Red Trapper, the Wandering With of the Wastes; he rode upon an enormous creature filled with water with his diminuitive assistant, and the entire town had gathered to see the wares he was hawking. The heroes talked with Kriksis and set up a meeting for alter that evening concerning the body. Upon arrival to the meeting, the group discovered that the body had dessicated in the heat, and it was decided that it was possible that the mushrooms that were translucent were causing a disease that was afflicting thsoe who ate them. The elders were told to quarantine anyone who exhibited symptoms of stomach illness. On the way back to their quarters, Leia was approached by Trapper, who indicated that he had seen the flying mountain going across the sky and had made haste to follow it, hence his arrival in the city. He was keenly interested in getting a tour of it, and arranged to meet with the group in the morning. The next day, the group traded with Trapper (and found that he had interacted with Teodara when he sold them crow-man's crow) and after some reservations and discussions, took him to the mountain, blindfolded. Trapper surprised them with a very acute working knowledge of the operation of the vessel, and earned a modicum of trust when he explained his knowledge of the doings of the greatenemy they faced days previous. The group arrived in the control room to find the Great Bull standing there, having marched across the desert to resume his post. They created a trap involving gunpowder, and lured the mechanical beast into it; In the resultant explosion, the group landed on the ground nearby the mountain entrance and did battle with the now-injured beast. Leia dispatched it with a precise sword blow, lodging her blade in its gears and disabling it. Meanwhile, Trapper, left alone, had taken control of the vessel and began flying it up into the sky. The group was able to rope off to the vessel and re-enter it, where they confronted Trapper and forced him to relinquish control of it. They then went to rescue Teodora Red-Boots, who Trapper ahd indicated that he left stranded in the wastes. They found her, some days later, dehydrated, with Crow-Man and an unidentified stranger. They were taken aboard and given healing and rest, whereupon it was discovered that they were shackled, presumably in a group of slaves; Trapper had intended to sell them, but had left them in the desert, shackled together. A sandstorm settled in about the mountain while the group decided what to do, and it was resolved to kill trapper and return to Ixis. As the group began to leave, there were vessels spotted flying in the sandstorm. A chase was commenced, and Trapper used his expert piloting ability to navigate the ship away from the pursuers. He landed the mountain shortly thereafter and revealed that he was on the run from the pursuing vessels. He had decided he would submit himself to their justice rather than risk deaths at the hands of the adventurers who had discovered his slaving depredations. The pursuers anchored their vessels to the mountain, and Trapper was handed over. After a bit of blustering and language-based communications problems, it was found that Hadron could speak the language of these sky-men, and it was decided that the Heroes would turn over their flying mountain to the sky-men in exchange for a vessel like theirs. In a dense cloud of exposition, it was learned that the sky-men had been at war with the great evil that lived on Rhud, and that they had patrolled the skies, protecting the rest of the worlds from the Rhudic evil. They were also at war with some of the other moons, and as a consequence of this split front, they were unable to commit to a war to defeat the evil once and for all. The flying mountain would not be able to fly to other worlds, but the sky-men had an interest in using it as a flying base from which to launch their vessels. 'Empyrean Campaign Overview - Part 2' Having identified the forces that are destroying Rhud, the heroes explore a wider world and form new alliances. (Levels 5-7) Garret, Leia, Okren, Baz-Baz and Leslie Session 9 - Flight of the Smashinator After attempting to communicate with it, they found that the ring adjusted its broadcast along with their language; Baz-Baz and Leia were able to use their skills to decipher the ring's code and found that it had come for Hadron. They found Hadron deep in the mountain, dying from fever and covered in red lines across his body. When the ring arrived, a terrible thing happened: Hadron's body split, part of it forming a mass of bone and sinew on the floor, the remainder lying in the bed convulsing. Garret tackled the gibbering mass on the floor, which immediately began spewing blasphemies that clouded the minds of the adventurers. They killed the creature, and the ring began to attend to Hadron; it claimed that it could render down the remainder of his body into a "reduced" form-- the adventurers learned that the leathery egg creature that they had fought before had imprinted itself onto Hadron, and had been growing in his very cells. They had finally truly saved him; sadly, there wasn't much left. Further, the ring indicated that Hadron could be restored in the Maladvipa; there was an island there that housed the dead. The adventurers set off at once in their vessel, which they affectionately named the "smashinator", which was in truth a small but swift skiff. They traveled across great seas and did battle with manta rays before arriving at a drydock in orbit about Culombe, where they were met with trepidation by the commander Mec'Anaik. They were quickly debriefed, repaired and re-dispatched before prying eyes could report the exotic adventurers to interested parties; they exchanged a young crewmember for an anthropologist by the name of Weilder. Back on the road, they encountered some free-spirited partiers, before making a brief overlay on an enormous island where they marveled at the expanse of grasses and swam briefly in fresh water. After their brief respite, the heroes resumed their travel, passing over the city of Stoatpamphlet, which had been recently attacked, with much of the city still afire. They found out why soon enough when they overtook a fleet returning to Ortuga. The warships were towing captured ships and moving slow. The heroes decided to blow through, using superior speed to hopefully get past the enemy. Baz-Baz cast an illusion to help protect them, but as they flew through they still sustained numerous hits. Their run was almost called to a close when a grappling hook yanked their ship to a halt—Leia was running full sails, and the pressure snapped one of the masts. Okren quickly reacted by grabbing the rigging and hauling the mast into place with his prodigious strength. The ship was soon past the warships and underway, but from behind them came a squadron of men with specially-designed flying backpacks and arm wings. They bombed the Crushinator with fire-pots while Garret and Weilder fired and ultimately dispatched them. Tremendously damaged and on fire, the Crushinator cruised onward to Otruga and the Maladvipa beyond. Session 9 - Ship to Shore The heroes swiftly realized that the crippled and burning Crushinator was a ruin, and prepared to abandon ship. removing lodestones from the ship's frame, the quickly rigged a raft from rope and bits of planking and attempted to flee to safety. Their raft carried them back towards the Ortugan fleet, where they leapt off onto one of the massive ships and did battle with the crew. They fought their way inside, and found a number of slaves being held their. They released the slaves, who then armed themselves and stormed the ship; one of them, Leslie, joined the party and helped them break back out of the ship. The Ortugan vessels were towing captured ships; the heroes quickly captured one of these with subterfuge, taking captive one of the skeleton crew. The ship turned out to be very capable, and they were soon back underway on their quest, handily outrunning the slow-moving Ortugan picket.